New Year, be YOU!
I love the New Years' tradition of creating resolutions! What a gift to give to yourself! Take the time to review and reflect on your life over the last year and design a compelling future. A year in review helps to stimulate thoughts around areas of appreciation and opportunities for growth. Gratitude actually stimulates growth because it reinforces the good and the possibility for more potential. What? Really?
So often the fear is that gratitude breeds complacency. The greater probability is that it stimulates your belief in your potential. When we stop and recognize and savor what is good it opens up our minds to the reality that good things aren't just for other people, but we have them too. Further, if we enjoy the good that we have we definitely want to do more of that, and since we already see what we have and enjoy it, we know more is possible! More love! More joy! More growth! With that fuel in our pockets it's on to the next area, our challenges.
Review the year with its trip-ups, let-downs, and heartaches. What can we do differently in the future? Can we communicate better? How would our priorities change? What habits steal our joy? How are we letting ourselves down by living in a way that doesn't reflects our true values? 100% of the time we invite misery when how we live is out of sync with what we truly value. Get those values right side up!
Ask yourself, if I was living in a way that reflected my values what would my life look like? How would I work? How would I play? How would I connect? How would I grow? Out of this comes our resolutions. Now these resolutions are powered by more than good ideas. They come out of our passions, our heart, our "why".
Design resolutions that are achievable. I suggest making your goals more like a range. For example, if you wanted to work out more, how many days a week is your ideal? 4? 5? If you had a really bad week, how many days is your minimum? 1? 2? then set your resolution to workout 1-4 times per week. It needs to be winable.
Put it in the calendar. Write down the best times to make your new habits a reality. Sometime next week isn't enough.
Once it is in the calendar, CELEBRATE when you follow through! It is bananas that we hold ourselves back from enjoying growth until we get the magical "silver donut." Growth is the reward!
What if I didn't follow through? Don't judge it! This is the hunt we've been on! What has kept you from being who you really want to be? This is major good stuff in that it is getting you closer to identifying the barrier that has been holding you back. Make a note in your calendar of what kept you from following through. Set up the schedule again for next week and make adjustments to get over, around, under, or through that barrier! I've done this tracking before and after a few weeks I noticed I kept writing "I'm tired." So I found a way to slide in a 20 minute power nap, and low and behold I could follow through. Who knew, right?!
Tips for mindset. Change your mentality from "I have to do this", "I need to do this" to "I get to do this." I did this when I returned to the gym 16 years ago. I looked around and couldn't stop smiling. My heart was so full. I kept thinking "I am finally here! I get to do what I've always wanted to do." I'm not going to lie and say every day feels like this but most days do!
Resolve to live 2022 being more true to the real you!
